SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION 


AT 

RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE.* 

(proposed  1872  ; ESTABLISHED  1886.) 

The  very  statement  of  the  subject  here  announced  takes  for  granted  that  Col- 
leges are  requisite  for  young  women  ; that  they  are  to  be  distinct  from  those  for 
young  men  ; and  that  in  them  special  modifications  of  the  established  curriculum 
will  be  both  requisite  and  legitimate.  These  postulates  demand  passing  review 
that  the  modifications  proposed  may  be  rightly  appreciated. 

The  demand  for  higher  and  truly  collegiate  education  has  been  awakened  with- 
in the  last  twenty  years  in  our  own  country  and  in  Europe,  just  in  proportion  as  the 
recognition  of  increased  popular  representation  in  government  has  prevailed.  In 
England  simultaneously  with  increased  extension  of  suffrage  the  voice  of  public 
sentiment  called  for  the  establishment  of  a University  Course  of  Lectures  for 
Women.  At  Hitchin,  a location  midway  between  London  and  Cambridge,  an  insti- 
tution was  established  at  which  the  professors  from  both  centers  met  to  give  courses 
of  lectures.  During  the  past  year,  the  professors  at  London  have  resolved  to  furnish 
in  the  city  itself  a course  of  lectures  for  young  women  ; the  ladies  providing  for 
themselves  board,  lodging,  and  other  means  of  support.  This  London  movement 
has  determined  the  professors  at  Cambridge  to  remove  the  institution  at  Hitchin  to 
a location  within  two  miles  of  that  seat  of  learning,  so  that  it  can  be  under  their 
immediate  supervision.  Turning  to  Russia,  we  observe  that,  only  a few  years  after 
the  emancipation  of  the  serfs,  not  only  elementary  schools,  but  also  fully  organized 
Colleges  for  female  education  began  to  be  provided.  Returning  thence  westward 
to  Germany  and  France,  the  careful  observer  notes  that  some  of  the  ablest  writers 
are  urging  the  establishment  of  collegiate  instruction  for  young  women  ; and  are 
arguing  its  necessity  from  the  advancement  which  the  common  people  are  making 
in  the  control  they  exert  over  political  affairs. 

It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the  fact  now  so  palpable  that,  in  our  country,  there  is 

* Author’s  Note. — The  following  paper,  read  at  the  Convocation  of  the  Regents  of  the 
University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Aug.  6th  to  8th,  1872,  and  published  both  in  their  proceed- 
ings, in  the  N.  Y.  State  Educational  'Journal,  and  in  a separate  pamphlet  by  the  Regents,  is  now, 
on  the  writer’s  resumed  connection  with  the  College,  republished  by  request.  While  the  order  of 
studies  proposed  must  be  that  pursued  if  College  degrees  are  given,  in  Colleges  for  young  women  as 
for  young  men  the  most  thorough  training  for  partial  and  special  students  is  provided. 

Regents’  Note.— In  introducing  the  following  paper  the  writer  stated  that  several  con- 
siderations had  prompted  its  preparation.  A careful  study  of  the  progress  of  collegiate  instruction 
in  Europe  and  America,  during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  had  led  to  the  conviction  that  female 
education  was  to  receive  greater  attention  than  even  that  now  given  to  our  best  Colleges.  Again, 
after  performing  a personal  duty  to  all  his  sons,  now  men,  at  Columbia  College,  D.  C.,  he  had  been 
called  to  the  same  responsibility  as  to  his  daughters,  yet  young,  at  Rutgers  Female  College,  New 
York  City.  Yet  more,  his  careful  observation  as  an  instructor  had  revealed  the  fact  that,  while 
the  aspiration  of  female  college  pupils  for  high  attainments  is  even  more  controlling  than  in  young 
men,  scarcely  one  is  to  be  met  who  does  not  rejoice  at  the  wisdom  which  led  the  New  York  State 
Legislature  to  restrict  Rutgers  College  from  conferring  “ professional  degrees.” 


2 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  AT  EUTGEES  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


a demand  not  simply  on  the  part  of  young  women,  but  also  of  their  parents,  for  a 
thorough  collegiate  education  as  the  “ right  ” to  which  females  are  unquestionably 
entitled.  The  questions  incidentally  associated  with  this  demand,  especially  the 
suggestion  that  w^omen  should  receive  the  right  of  franchise,  add  to,  if  they  do  not 
in  one  sense  originate  this  demand  ; since  the  question  whether  this  demand  is 
legitimate  must  be  determined  by  educated  women  themselves,  in  order  to  be  safely 
and  legitimately  settled.  This  association  of  two  ideas  is  an  intimation  of  two 
principles,  whose  relation  should  be  carefully  considered. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  a recognition  of  the  fallacy  so  current,  and  yet  never  con- 
trolling, that  an  elementary  education  is  all  that  is  required  for  the  fulfillment  of 
life’s  mission,  both  by  men  and  women.  Surely  this  suggestion  overlooks  the  fact,  so 
palpable  to  every  one  who  thinks  the  subject  through,  that  the  mission  of  society 
as  a whole  requires  the  higher  education  which  furnishes’  men  of  science,  art,  and 
letters  ; without  whom  none  of  the  industrial  enterprises  of  a community  could  be 
kept  up,  and  without  whom,  too,  any  State  would  soon  be  an  anarchy.  Equally 
apparent  is  it  that,  unless  a people  are  to  put  themselves  in  the  power  of  an  edu- 
cated class  separate  from  their  families  and  community  and  strangers  to  their 
sympathies,  they  must  provide  this  higher  education  for  their  own  sons.  This  fact 
becomes  so  palpable  to  thinking  men  that  colleges  for  young  men  abound  ; and 
parents  have  sufficient  ambition  to  secure  it  for  their  sons.  The  new  and  persistent 
call  for  female  colleges  recognizes  another  principle.  The  culture  of  women,  and 
that  alone,  secures  and  makes  available  the  culture  of  men.  Search  where  we  will, 
analyze  the  social  influences  that  rule  in  a Turkish  or  English  community,  open 
history  at  any  page,  and  we  find  the  truth  as  permanent  as  human  nature,  that  all 
efforts  to  secure  true  culture  among  men  have  succeeded  only  so  far  as  female 
culture  has  prevailed.  The  rise  of  an  Aspasia,  the  inspirer  of  Socrates,  as  he  himself 
avowed,  is  not  an  exception  in  human  history  ; it  is  the  rule.  All  studious  observers 
know  that  men,  associated  with  women  of  high  position  in  European  society,  have 
been  made  in  childhood  or  manhood  what  they  are  by  the  moulding  power  of 
cultured  women.  The  sojourner  in  the  mansions  of  families  who  for  generations 
maintain  their  ascendency  anywhere  in  Europe,  has  learned  that  the  daughters 
receive  as  thorough  an  education  as  the  sons,  who  graduate  from  the  university. 
While  the  idea  of  higher  education  is  restricted  to  a class,  this  will  ever  remain  true. 
But  when  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  people  generally  claim  their  title  to  sit 
among  the  princes,  when  a Russian  emperor  seeks  to  have  an  emancipated  people 
prove  worthy  of  freedom,  when  in  America  any  young  woman  may  be  called  to 
sustain  the  reputation  of  a husband  occupying  official  station,  parents  will  aspire  to 
give  a higher  education  to  their  daughters,  and  statesmen  will  appreciate  their  per- 
sistent demand.  The  neglect  which  has  led  to  the  endowments  of  hundreds  of 
colleges  for  young  men  in  our  country,  while  scarcely  one  man  has  thought 
practically  of  the  manifest  truth  just  stated,  is  one  of  those  wondrous  oversights 
from  which  men  often  suddenly  awake,  wondering  that  they  should  have  been  so 
long  blinded. 

The  demand  for  collegiate  education  we  may  then  regard  a legitimate  one  ; and 
colleges  for  young  women  will  certainly  be  furnished  by  Americans,  when  Japanese 
sagacity  is  discerning  their  necessity.  The  question  then  next  arises  whether  any 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  A T RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


3 


modification  in  the  curriculum  is  requisite  in  such  colleges.  These  two  palpable 
facts  meet  the  comprehensive  observer  : the  peculiar  cast  of  woman’s  intellect  as 
compared  with  man’s,  and  her  sphere  of  intellectual  influence  as  separate  from  his, 
demand  an  education  parallel  to,  yet  the  counterpart  of  the  established  college 
curriculum. 

Recent  discussion  in  England  as  to  increased  facilities  for  female  culture  have 
led  able  writers  to  search  the  annals  of  the  past,  in  order  to  trace  the  distinction 
always  recognized  between  the  intellectual  cast  of  woman  and  that  of  man.  From 
the  days  of  our  first  mother,  the  more  earnest  spirit  of  inquiry  and  the  quick  intui- 
tions have  been  characteristic  of  woman’s  mind  as  contrasted  with  man’s.  Napoleon 
said,  after  he  had  learned  to  speak  frankly,  “ that  in  his  divorce  from  Josephine  he 
lost  his  best  counselor  ; that  her  instincts  were  truer  than  his  reasonings  ; and  that 
her  first-glance  impressions  of  men  and  measures  were  both  more  clear  and  more 
impartial  than  those  of  his  cabinet.”  That  man  of  large  success  in  business  is  an 
exception  who  has  not  found  his  wife’s  intuitions  the  happy  supplement,  the  per- 
fect complement  of  his  less  impartial  estimates  and  of  his  more  tardy  calcula- 
tions. Yet,  again,  strength  is  the  general  characteristic  of  intellect  in  man  and 
grace  in  woman.  The  cimeter  of  the  light-horse  Saladin  cuts  hairs  in  argument 
when  the  claymore  of  Coeur-de-Leon  does  not  break  a casque.  The  ox-like  drag  of 
man’s  heavy-moving  mental  machinery  is  outrun  by  the  careering  sally  and  dash 
that  sparkle  in  woman’s  debate.  No  one  fails  to  admit  that  from  the  day  when  our 
first  father  yielded  to  his  companion  aspiring  to  be  wise,  woman  has  in  all  history 
carried  her  point  in  differences  with  man.  Assuredly,  then,  this  positive  power,  so 
controlling,  should  be  guided  by  thorough  culture. 

This  leads  naturally  to  the  consideration  of  woman’s  sphere,  as  it  is  now  dis- 
cussed. That  sphere,  fixed  by  nature,  never  has  been,  and,  from  the  necessity  of  the 
case,  never  can  be  materially  changed.  The  family  is  and  ever  must  be  the  founda- 
tion of  all  human  society.  If  the  family  be  regarded  as  an  association  for  industrial 
provision,  we  are  met  by  the  fact  that  every  successful  business  copartnership  has 
its  indoor  and  outdoor  head.  If  the  family  be  viewed  as  the  school  for  the  wider 
relation  of  political  association,  we  know  that  government  must  have  its  appointed 
official  representative.  If  yet,  again,  the  family  be  considered  in  its  higher  aspect  as 
the  divinely  established  agency  for  the  perpetuation  and  moulding  of  a race  pre- 
pared to  accomplish  his  special  purposes,  then  there  can  be  no  question  which  one 
of  the  partners  is  called  to  the  indoor  and  which  to  the  outdoor  duties  of  home  and 
country  ; which  to  the  rough  exposure  and  which  to  quiet  moulding.  It  is  wonder- 
ful, now,  to  remark  how  comprehensive  thinkers  have  brought  harmony  into  dis- 
cussions as  to  woman’s  sphere,  which  have  at  times  created  an  unnatural  aspiring, 
sure  to  meet  disappointment.  When  Plato,  by  his  Republic,  had  inaugurated  at 
Athens  the  same  partial  philosophy  now  rife  as  to  female  suffrage  and  official  pre- 
cedence, Aristotle  called  attention  to  the  facts  which  always  have  decided  and 
always  will  decide.  The  Greeks  had  always,  unlike  the  Asiatics,  maintained  monog- 
amy ; because  there  were  about  the  same  number  of  each  sex  born  into  the  world, 
and  because  the  Greeks  thought  every  man  as  an  equal,  entitled  to  one  companion. 
The  relation  of  husband  and  wife  he  regarded  as  always  subject  to  voluntary  choice  ; 
and  the  position  of  each  in  the  family  that  of  joint  office  ; woman,  because  of  man’s 


4 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  AT  RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


constant  public  occupation  away  from  his  home,  being  the  virtual  head  of  the 
family,  while  man’s  rule  was  only  occasional  at  home  but  constant  in  society  at 
large.  As  to  political  relations,  the  same  profound  thinker  distinguished  between 
civic  right  which  entitles  every  individual  to  protection  by  law,  and  political  right 
which  gives  to  the  portion  of  the  community  fitted  for  its  exercise  a voice  in  making 
and  maintaining  government.  The  latter  demands  three  qualifications  : the  capac- 
ity to  decide  by  practical  intercourse  with  men  what  should  be  law  ; the  habit  of 
association  with  men  which  gives  discriminating  judgment  as  to  acts  in  violation  of 
law ; and  the  physical  ability  to  bear  arms  in  the  forcible  execution  of  law. 
Woman’s  sphere  in  the  family  manifestly  unfits  her  for  all  these  three  offices  : the 
legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  functions  of  government.  All  history  indicates 
that  woman,  by  her  moral  influence,  may  privately  control  the  counsels  of  men  in 
their  associations  for  public  ends  ; and  that  same  history  equally  shows  that  it  is 
women  who  are  women  indeed,  filling  their  positions  as  heads  of  families,  who  most 
instinctively  condemn  the  few  unsexed  advocates  of  female  suffrage,  who,  from 
personal  ambition,  misrepresent  their  sex.  All  discussions  as  to  the  modifications 
of  collegiate  education  for  young  women  must  proceed  on  the  supposition  that  her 
sphere  of  influence  is  the  old  established  realm  fixed  by  her  nature,  that  of  family 
and  social  control,  which  has  always  most  ruled  the  action  of  parliaments  and  of 
courts,  of  armies  and  of  nations. 

Directing  now  our  attention  to  our  main  topic — the  ends  and  means  of  higher 
education  employed  in  past  and  in  present  times — we  find  a striking  likeness  in 
the  practice  of  civilized  nations.  Education,  as  the  word  implies,  is  the  drawing 
out,  rather  than  the  storing  of  the  mind.  It  is  like  the  training  of  the  mechanic, 
of  the  artist,  and  of  the  engineer,  which  develops,  directs,  and  energizes  natural 
power.  The  mind’s  powers,  which  require  practical  drawing  out,  are  those  of 
thought  and  of  expression  ; the  one  that  truth  may  be  attained,  the  other  that  it 
may  be  successfully  imparted.  The  fundamental  studies  employed  as  means  for 
this  development  have  been  in  all  historic  ages,  in  ancient  Egypt  and  India,  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  and  they  are  now  in  modern  Asiatic  and  European  colleges,  these 
two  as  primary  : mathematics  and  the  classic  languages.  In  mathematical  reason- 
ing, the  most  youthful  pupil  knows  whether  the  process  is  correct  or  not ; and  he 
can  point  directly  to  any  error  and  to  its  result.  The  merest  child  that,  by  its  own 
effort,  seeks  the  sentiment  of  another’s  mind  through  a foreign  language,  and  is 
daily  called  in  translation  to  express  that  thought  readily  in  its  own  tongue,  is 
employing  a means  of  culturing  both  thought  and  expression  for  which  human 
wisdom  has  never  been  able  to  devise  a substitute.  The  discussions  in  England 
during  Arnold’s  day,  in  Russia  within  the  past  year,  and  of  our  American  educators 
during  recent  changes  in  collegiate  instruction,  have  confirmed  the  philosophic  con- 
clusion that  the  study  of  the  cultured  classic  tongues,  from  which  all  the  languages 
of  Europe  have  derived  their  terms  of  science,  of  art,  and  of  philosophy,  are  abso- 
lutely essential  in  three  respects  to  true  mental  development : first,  as  the  structural 
foundation  of  all  modern  cultured  tongues  ; second,  as  the  storehouse  of  scientific 
nomenclature  ; third,  and  mainly,  as  a developer  of  the  power  of  thought  and  of 
expression,  which  can  receive  no  substitute.  Young  women  must  either  remain 
wanting  in  the  very  elements  of  mental  development,  or  these  first  lessons  in  intel- 


I 


SYSTEM  OF  TNSTFUCTION  AT  RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


lectual  gymnasia,  the  mathematics  and  the  classic  tongues,  must  be  fundamental  in 
female  colleges. 

In  all  ages,  however,  the  mere  gymnasium,  or  provision  for  simple  development 
of  the  mind’s  powers,  has  been  made  but  the  preparation  for  university  studies, 
which  are  to  store  the  mind  ; and  these  have  been  pursued  with  more  or  less  of 
completeness  in  our  colleges  as  time  and  facilities  have  allowed.  These  may,  per- 
haps, in  higher  departments  of  collegiate  education,  be  grouped  under  these  seven 
schools  : mechanics  and  natural  philosophy,  embracing  applications  of  the  mathe- 
matics; natural  history,  including  plant,  animal,  and  human  anatomy  and  physiology, 
with  geology  ; language  and  literature,  embracing  all  those  studies  designed  to  give 
practical  skill  in  the  use  of  foreign  tongues  ; rhetoric  and  logic,  which  afford 
power  in  the  use  of  one’s  native  language  ; aesthetics  and  criticism,  embracing  prac- 
tical as  well  as  theoretical  acquaintance  with  the  fine  arts  ; civil  history,  political 
science,  and  economics  ; and  moral  and  intellectual  philosophy.  In  each  of  these 
departments  of  collegiate  study,  not  only  the  demands  of  general  culture,  but  the 
practical  demands  of  her  sphere,  require  that  a young  woman  become  proficient. 

Young  men  devoted  to  any  pursuit,  industrial  or  intellectual,  are  trained  in 
mechanics,  astronomy,  and  natural  philosoph)'  as  an  essential  part  of  general  culture. 
To  young  women  the  principles  of  mechanical  laws  will  be  directly  practical  in 
the  varied  oversight  of  the  household,  which  are  always  either  directly  or  indirectly 
woman’s  care.  Very  few  young  men  are  called  to  any  practical  application  of  their 
knowledge  of  anatomy,  physiology,  and  hygiene  ; but  every  physician,  knowing  that 
sickness  and  its  cure  are  to  be  met  in  all  households,  and  are  always  woman’s 
responsible  charge,  feels  that  his  prescriptions  will  be  sure  of  efficiency  only  where 
an  intelligent  nurse  presides.  A man  of  collegiate  training,  engrossed  in  profes- 
sional pursuits,  feels  no  hesitation  in  avowing  at  home  and  abroad  that  he  has  no 
time  to  keep  up  with  the  current  literature  of  the  day,  or  to  acquire  facility  in  the 
use  of  a foreign  language  ; but  his  companion,  educated  or  not  in  the  school,  would 
be  mortified  to  make  a similar  avowal.  Young  men,  who  design  to  devote  them- 
selves to  business  rather  than  professional  life,  are  urged  in  college  to  train  them- 
selves to  proficiency  in  logic,  rhetoric,  and  elocution,  since  not  onl}?’  in  public  but  in 
private  circles  this  acquisition  is  absolutely  essential  to  meet  with  ease  and  grace  the 
tax  of  cultured  association  ; and  in  this  the  women  of  our  day  are  and  must  be 
leaders.  For,  in  all  history,  theory  might  anticipate,  and  experience  confirms  as  the 
fact,  that  a literary  atmosphere  never  pervades  society,  unless  women  of  culture  compel 
the  conversation  of  the  social  circle  where  men  and  women  meet,  into  a common 
channel,  as  they  cannot  in  conversation  as  to  the  business  pursuits  that  occupy 
them  ; and  even  here  elocutionary  training  is  found  indispensable  to  facility,  grace, 
and  attractiveness  in  literary  conversation.  In  the  fine  arts,  especially  in  music  and 
drawing,  practically  if  not  theoretically,  it  is  the  exception  when  the  educated  man 
is  proficient  ; but  with  young  women  the  exception  in  such  attainment  is  always 
marked  as  a defect  in  natural  gifts  or  in  early  training.  In  the  practical  application 
of  the  lessons  of  history,  in  the  philosophy  that  underlies  especially  politics  and 
economics,  woman  is  more  practically  interested  than  man  ; for  if  man  gathers 
wealth,  she  controls  its  expenditure  ; if  business-men  seek  fragments  of  time  for 
consideration  of  the  means  which  keep  up  the  physical  and  moral  health  of  the 


6 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  A T RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


body-politic,  woman  is  expected  to  share  most  largely  in  correcting  the  evils  which 
unwise  legislation  and  violations  of  law  entail.  Yet,  again,  who  knows  not  that  it  is 
the  wife,  the  sister,  whose  intellectual  and  moral  influence  is  expected  to  give  law 
to  men  trained  even  in  the  college  ; and  how  is  this  possible  unless  man's  knowl- 
edge in  these  departments  be  woman’s  also  ? In  each  department  of  collegiate 
instruction,  if  women  be  considered  merely  as  the  companions  of  men,  woman’s 
need  is  if  anything  greater  than  man’s;  and  the  college  should  be  as  much  for 
the  one  as  for  the  other. 

But  how  enhanced  this  demand  when  we  consider  that  woman’s  culture  is  to 
give  shape  to  succeeding  generations.  While  the  wife  and  sister  by  their  culture 
give  character  to  the  social  circle  and  thus  to  the  real  spirit  of  a nation  and-an  age, 
it  is  pre-eminently  the  mother’s  culture,  not  the  father’s,  that  gives  the  first  spring, 
the  early  shape,  the  mature  moulding  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  cast  of  the  age 
next  succeeding,  and  thus  to  generations  still  to  arise.  The  impressive  fact  that 
while  under  European  institutions,  religious,  political,  and  educational,  families  are 
built  up  which  for  generations  maintain  an  elevated  position  and  a superior  culture, 
scarcely  a single  American  family  has  survived  the  decline  of  the  second  generation, 
is  beginning  to  awaken  the  attention  of  men  who  seek  for  themselves,  their  family, 
and  their  country  something  more  than  an  ephemeral  fame.  Children  of  our  great 
and  princely  men  drag  down  to  oblivion  the  worthiest  name,  because  the  generation 
that  next  wears  it  shows  a lack  of  fidelity  most  vital  in  the  educational  training  of 
heirs  who  should  prove  worthy  of  their  parents.  Where  are  our  princely  families  in 
the  land,  whose  princes  in  wealth  and  wisdom  of  the  first  generation,  nevertheless, 
so  greatly  abound  ? Which  of  our  noble  statesmen,  generals,  merchants  has  left 
descendants  that  gave  increased  lustre  to  his  name?  So  rare  is  the  exception  to  the 
fact  that  the  very  children  trained  in  the  household  of  the  noblest  specimens  of 
American  manhood  disgrace  the  parents  who  should  have  made  them  worthy — so 
rare  is  the  exception,  that  the  causes  of  this  anomaly  begin  to  awaken  earnest  in- 
quiry. It  is  worthy  an  hour’s  thought  ; but  to  one,  mainly,  of  these  two  causes  it 
must  be  referred  : either  the  father  has  too  much  to  do  to  gain  and  to  maintain 
his  own  high  position,  and  therefore  neglects  the  training  of  his  children,  or  the 
mother  lacks  that  practical  wisdom  which  thorough  collegiate  training  affords.  This 
latter,  as  history  attests,  is  the  main  error.  The  mere  material,  superficial,  artificial 
show  of  her  family  absorbs  the  thought  and  labor  of  its  head  ; which,  if  directed  by 
the  counsels  and  control  of  an  educated  mind,  would  make  her  children  derive 
from  their  increased  facilities  an  advance  on  their  parents  and  their  generation  at 
large,  that  would  secure  perpetuated  families  of  growing  power  in  every  department 
of  life. 

This  double  demand,  then,  for  higher  female  education,  the  controlling  in- 
fluence it  will  certainly  have  on  the  existing  age  and  its  forming  and  growing  power 
over  the  next,  calls  back  our  thought  to  the  leading  point  of  our  proposed  con- 
sideration : The  Modifications  of  the  established  Curriculum  requisite  and  legitimate  in 
Female  Colleges.  Our  previous  survey  of  the  cast  of  woman’s  mind  as  the  comple- 
ment of  man’s,  of  her  sphere  as  the  supplement  of  his,  and  of  the  direct  tendency  of 
the  college  curriculum  to  develop  and  direct  the  mental  energies  of  a young  woman 
as  well  as  of  a young  man,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are  more  generally  practical 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  A T RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


7 


in  woman’s  than  in  man’s  lifelong  vocation,  restricts  this  final  survey  to  a narrow 
limit. 

Every  one  of  the  seven  departments  of  university,  as  distinct  from  gymnasia 
studies,  is  as  important  in  female  as  in  male  education.  Within  the  last  few  years 
the  increasing  importance  of  special  training  for  lucrative  industrial  pursuits  has 
called  for  modifications  of  the  curriculum  to  meet  the  wants  of  our  young  men 
destined  to  different  professions.  A careful  discrimination,  directed  to  the  special 
vocation  of  woman  as  distinct  from  man’s,  fixed  as  this  her  vocation  is  by  her 
peculiar  cast  of  mind,  may  suggest  modifications  perhaps  even  more  legitimate 
than  those  made  for  different  classes  of  young  men. 

To  woman,  grace,  rather  than  strength,  is  the  natural  divine  gift  ; she  is  to 
rule  by  gentle  yet  effectual  persuasion,  rather  than  by  stern  close-linked  and  hard- 
pressed  conviction  ; and  her  domain  is  more  purely  aesthetic  and  moral  than  it  is 
logical  and  intellectual.  This  calls  for  another  glance  at  the  several  departments 
of  collegiate  study,  to  see  in  what  schools  woman’s  culture  must  be  more  extended 
and  in  what  it  may  be  less  labored,  than  in  colleges  for  young  men. 

Commencing  with  the  classic  languages,  it  is  manifest  that  young  women  must 
make  greater  attainments  in  modern  languages  than  young  men  ; especially  in 
French  as  the  language  of  common  intercourse,  in  German  as  the  language  of 
literary  research,  and  in  the  Italian  as  the  language  of  art.  This  demands  a more 
restricted  study  of  the  classic  tongues.  Here  our  attention  is  called  to  the  fact 
that  in  former  times  special  selections  were  made  from  classic  authors,  as  Caesar, 
Virgil,  and  Cicero,  required  for  entrance  into  college  ; while  now  whole  books  of 
these  authors  are  to  be  passed  in  review.  Practical  teachers  now  find,  that,  for  a 
few  weeks,  a new  author  will  be  carefully  studied  until  his  peculiar  style  is  mastered; 
when  the  rest  of  the  entire  volume  is  carelessly  run  through,  either  from  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  narrative,  or  as  a drudgery  that  must  be  undergone.  Much  of  the  time 
thus  devoted  to  classic  authors,  many  thoughtful  teachers  cannot  but  regard  a 
waste  ; while  some  will  come  to  the  forced  conclusion  that,  by  cultivating  habits 
of  careless  study,  this  undigested  storing  is  worse  than  useless  for  all  purposes  of 
genuine  culture.  The  female  college  may  certainly  take  the  position  that  the 
thorough  mastery  of  the  general  structure  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  tongues  at- 
tained in  the  grammar  of  these  languages,  a practical  power  to  employ  their 
etymology  and  syntax  by  the  drilling  of  prose  composition,  and  a familiarity  with 
the  vocabulary  and  idioms  of  the  best  historical,  poetical,  and  philosophical  writers 
attained  in  choice  selections  from  a few  works,  as  a modification  of  the  curriculum 
of  classic  study,  may  give  time  for  added  lessons  in  modern  languages,  while 
attended  with  no  real  loss  of  true  culture  in  the  classic  tongues. 

Turning,  again,  to  the  second  department  of  gymnasia  studies,  the  mathematics, 
these  two  facts  are  to  be  observed.  The  end  of  this  study  is  twofold  ; to  train  the 
mind  to  detect  errors  in  the  process  of  thought,  and  to  give  an  understanding  of 
the  principles  of  mechanism  framed  by  man  and  established  by  the  Maker  of  all 
in  the  material  universe.  These  ends  are  indispensable  in  female  mental  develop- 
ment. But  the  practical  teacher  has  learned  that  full  one-half  of  the  labored 
demonstrations  of  propositions  in  geometry,  two-thirds  of  the  problems  in  algebra, 
and  like  proportions  of  the  treatises  on  trigonometry,  algebraic  geometry,  and  calcu- 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  A T RUTGERS  FEMALE  COLLEGE. 


lus  are  repetitions  both  in  principle  and  detail  ; and  that  they  occasion,  as  do  repeti- 
tions in  classic  readings,  either  a listless  or  a careless  habit  of  study  ; securing, 
indeed,  facility  from  review  to  practical  mathematicians,  but  giving  no  new  employ- 
ment to  the  mental  powers,  and  furnishing  no  new  principle  for  future  use  in  terres- 
trial and  celestial  mechanics.  The  same  reduction  may  here  be  made  in  the  mathe- 
matical as  in  the  classical  curriculum  ; and  this  may  afford  the  time  requisite  for 
aesthetic  and  art  studies,  specially  demanded  in  female  as  distinct  from  male 
collegiate  education.  The  naturalness  and  hence  the  legitimacy  of  these  sugges- 
tions will  appear  on  a moment’s  reflection.  As  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages 
is  directly  subsidiary  to  that  of  the  modern  languages,  whose  words,  if  not  their 
idioms,  are  largely  derived  from  the  former,  so  the  study  of  the  mathematics,  as 
the  ancient  Greeks  had  learned,  have  a bearing  on  the  fine  arts  quite  as  important 
as  on  the  mechanic  arts. 

It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the  minor  modifications  that  the  good  sense  and 
observation  of  every  educator  will  suggest  as  appropriate  for  female  culture  in  the 
other  departments  of  college  study.  As  already  intimated,  the  amount  of  time 
given  to  modern  languages  in  female  colleges  must  be  greater  than  in  colleges  for 
young  men.  It  follows  necessarily  from  this  fact,  also,  that  a different  method  of 
instruction  must  be  pursued,  since  the  end  to  be  attained  is  practical  facility  in 
speaking  at  least  French  and  German  ; which  cannot  be  secured  without  direct  use 
of  these  languages  in  certain  parts  of  collegiate  instruction,  or  by  the  employment 
of  them  in  certain  hours  devoted  to  college  pursuits.  It  will  be  naturally  suggested, 
too,  that  instruction  in  elocution  has  a different  end  and  must  take  a different 
character  from  that  given  to  it  in  young  men’s  training.  It  is  not,  however,  for  that 
reason  to  be  neglected  ; since  the  elocutionary  training  of  the  college  is  deemed 
essential  even  for  those  who  do  not  intend  to  be  public  speakers  ; who  need,  how- 
ever, to  acquire  confidence,  ease,  and  grace  in  communicating  their  thoughts  in 
private  and  social  circles.  As  this  is  pre-eminently  woman’s  sphere  of  intellectual 
and  moral  influence,  while  none  of  the  special  styles  of  elocution,  as  the  dramatic 
for  the  stage,  the  oratorical  for  the  platform,  or  the  didactic  for  the  desk,  are 
demanded,  that  other  general  style  properly  called  the  conversational,  which  can 
take  on,  upon  occasion  and  for  the  moment,  either  of  the  features  of  the  three 
special  styles,  that  which  gives  special  vivacity  and  effectiveness  to  every  popular 
speaker  in  public  or  private, — this  is  to  be  a part  of  an  educated  young  woman’s 
training. 

In  closing  this  cursory  survey,  it  must  be  apparent  that  the  special  form  which 
is  to  be  given  to  female  colleges,  now  becoming  a reality  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
demands  the  attention  of  our  very  ablest  men  devoted  to  the  subject  of  educa- 
tion ; not  simply  that  of  those  who  are  giving  their  energies  directly  to  it.  It  is 
certain  that  colleges  specially  devoted  to  female  education  must  be  furnished  for 
young  women.  If  trustees  are  brought  to  think  it  proper  that  existing  colleges 
be  opened  for  young  women,  those  who  most  long  for  such  education  will  not 
overcome  that  delicacy  of  sensibility  which  forbids  their  entrance.  Yet  more,  if 
admitted,  and  if  accepting  the  proffer,  the  curriculum  specially  prepared  for  young 
men  will  prove  quite  unadapted  to  the  intellectual  development  of  true  women. 


